Reverse Migration Threatens New Jersey Suburbs

After a half century of growth driven by families fleeing New York City, New Jersey's northern suburbs face an uncertain future as young families, young professionals and retirees find a resurgent Big Apple more to their liking.

"During the last half of the 20th century, New Jersey created almost 10 times as many new jobs as New York City and almost all of the state’s tract homes, shopping malls and large office complexes were built, according to one recent Rutgers University study."

However, according to Stephanie Akin, "Today’s New Jersey is experiencing a retraction of the employment gains, relative to New York City, that it experienced during the half-century after the baby boom: a decline in the number of families with small children and a new glut of vacant office space in sprawling campuses built to accommodate workers who wanted to avoid the city."

"The city planners, real estate agents and academics who follow such trends tend to agree that the region will need to reinvent itself to keep pace with the resurgence of New York City," says Akin. "Some developers are already talking about tearing down the once gleaming office campuses that are now outdated and too big for modern tenants. Instead, they would build high rises in riverside municipalities, like Edgewater and Fort Lee, to capitalize on the new taste for urban living that has sparked revitalizations in Jersey City and Hoboken."

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